In the season 1 finale of the Mind Your Uterus podcast, we take a look at our journey of learning about reproductive rights, safe abortions, abortion access, and stigma in different contexts around the world.

Our focus this season, when looking into abortion stigma has looked at it through the lense of those seeking the service, but those who provide the service also feel the brunt of stigma. In this episode, we hear the perspective of two providers working in the abortion space to better understand the extent to which abortion stigma impacts their work and well being.

In recent years, protests have precipitated in Namibia with women calling for reform. Their demand? Liberalising abortion as a means of addressing direct public health needs

Beyond legislation, increasing access to abortions services includes a multi-pronged approach in which all sectors of healthcare access are liberated. In this episode, we dive into what liberalisation means in the context of Southern Africa with our guest Ndiilokelwa Nthengwe

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Now more than ever, media has an immense impact on the information we have on various subject matters, because in many ways, it is all we can consume. There are benefits to this; easier access, people are more informed and general awareness of issues we otherwise would not know of. However, there can be many drawbacks including the propagation of a single story and more generally, misinformation. In this episode, Sneha Nair, communications officer for HowToUse, and I discuss the impact that media has on the way in which we perceive abortions and the collective responsibility we all have to ensure that diverse narratives are highlighted when speaking about the procedure to reduce stigma.

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The greatest source of knowledge when it comes to enacting change for communities, is from the communities themselves. In this episode, we look at the nature in which SheDecides in South Asia has been championing this way of enacting change in the abortion space. Our Guest Samara walks us through her work and how she has noticed the efficacy of centering the voices of those whose lives we hope to radically change through advocacy and policy change.

Telemedicine refers to the practice of caring for patients remotely when the provider and patient are not physically present to each other. Today we’re joined by Pauline Díaz and Michell Mor to discuss how telemedicine fits into the grand scheme of increasing access to abortion services. Not only does it help provide information on abortion services, it also gives people the opportunity to take back ownership ober ther interactions with healthcare services.

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Linda Klein describes components of purity culture as “ men are taught their minds are evil, whereas women are taught their bodies are evil. That is to say, men’s thoughts and actions are said to be either pure or impure, while women themselves are said to be either pure or impure.” It is this belief system that often facilitates stigma in women when they seek contraceptive or abortion services. We dive into this with Ann Kay, a feminist from Zambia as we seek to learn the ways in which purity culture impacts women in southern africa and their reproductive bodily autonomy.

Contexts such as those found in South Africa teach us a lot about abortion access; it does not stop at legislation. Like many women across the globe, South African women are afforded abortion access via legislation, but the stigma upheld by practitoners and people alike often means they struggle to access it, and even if they do, the mental turmoil they go through can often detract them from seeing the procedure through. Join us as we speak with Kanyisa Booi to discuss mental health, abortion stigma and a way forward for abortion accesibility that acknowledges the impact of stigma on those seeking the service.

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At some point in the trajectory of abortion services, there were many methodologies for terminating a pregnancy that were very dangerous. But in 2021, we are far from that era. There are various abortion options available, many of which are decentralised and in theory, accesible to many people. 

Join us as we speak with Alice from DKT Womancare Global as she takes us through the different types of abortions, while highlighting the ways in which DKT Womancare Global is championing abortion access across the globe.

In the second part of episode two, we continue discussing the impact the Global Gag Rule has had on different countries around the world. We’ll go into detail with Gisela Foz and Melisa Trad Malmod about the Hyde Amendment and how it has restricted access to abortion services. We’ll focus on the ramifications of these legislations in the context of Latin America.

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